Posted on 03/26/2006 9:07:36 AM PST by traumer
A failure of integration? - In the third and final part of his series about young Muslims in Europe, Roger Hardy visits a reputed hub of Islamic radicalism.
In a courtroom in Milan, packed with armed police, a metal cage holds six young Muslim defendants.
They are accused of sending militants to fight in Iraq and plotting a bomb attack which Italian police managed to nip in the bud.
During a break in proceedings, I ask veteran prosecutor Armando Spataro if he sees a clear link between integration and security.
"Terrorist groups refuse integration," he says.
Accordingly, integrating Europe's Muslims is a way of strengthening the moderates - and a necessary part of winning the "war on terror".
Young, insecure community
That metal cage serves as a warning of where Italy - and Europe - could be heading.
Italian officials have known for some time their country was exporting Islamic militants. Now they worry that militants may return from fighting in Iraq to carry out bombings in Europe.
The majority of Muslims in Italy don't speak Italian and don't share the values of Italian society Columnist Magdi Allam Italy is distinct from the countries I visited in northern Europe. Muslims have arrived here more recently and relatively few have acquired citizenship.
"It's a community without integration," says Magdi Allam, well-known Egyptian-born columnist at the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
"The majority of Muslims in Italy don't speak Italian in a proper way, don't know the culture or the religion of the Italian people, and don't share the values of Italian society."
He is deeply suspicious of mosques which have fallen under the sway of radical imams.
Anger over cartoons
I go to watch Friday prayers at the Islamic Cultural Centre, Milan's most infamous mosque - situated incongruously behind a car wash.
The controversy over cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad is in full flood.
The mosque's Egyptian imam, Abu Imad, mocks the "ignorant people" who published them.
"Who are these people?" he asks ironically. "Do they think that if they blow hard enough they can put out the sun?"
When I interview him, Abu Imad denies that he has links with radical groups outside the country - or that he sends young men to blow themselves up in Iraq.
Opposing views
The cartoon affair - and the wave of protest it unleashed - is the latest crisis to drive a wedge between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe.
Muslim prayers overflow into the street in Milan Police keep a close eye on activities at the Milan Islamic centre It has encouraged both sides to believe the worst of the other.
Supporters of their publication see Muslims as illiberal and prone to violence.
Opponents regard the newspaper editors as guilty of an affront - even a calculated affront - to Muslims and to the essence of what Muslims believe.
Magdi Allam supports his newspaper's decision to republish the cartoons.
The West should hold fast to its values, he tells me, and Muslims who want to live in the West must accept those values.
More typical of Muslim opinion is the view that the cartoons are an insult.
"They eat our hearts," says Usama, a 20-year-old student at Milan University.
Slow change
My European journey took me from Leeds and Paris to Amsterdam and finally Milan.
There are many ways of being a young Muslim in the new Europe.
Many embrace a vibrant youth culture, while Islam - if it matters at all - is simply a badge of identity.
Others are finding a new identity based on an Islam very different from that of their parents.
The idea that integration is not taking place at all - and that Islam just will not fit into European society - seems to me a myth.
But integration is a slow and difficult process. No one country can claim to have got it right.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the cartoon affair, it has increased the sense of polarisation and may have set back the prospects for integration.
And if integration fails, Europe's security as well as its social harmony will be jeopardised.
Most of Europe is reaping what they have sewn.
"The idea that integration is not taking place at all - and that Islam just will not fit into European society - seems to me a myth. "
--- So, after writing an article giving example after example of how the islamics do not support or approve of European values, are not accepting the culture of where they are living and are support ing terrorists ... the author declares that the islamics failure to integrate is a myth
How many moderate Muslims are integrating?
You assume that there is such a thing as moderate Islam.
There are Muslims who appear moderate because they don't practice Islam.
Who wants them to integrate?Just leave.Can't imagine them getting into the gene pool.
This is another thing the libTards and their mouthpiece, the MSM, are trying to keep in the background - that it isn't just the terrorists against US - it's the terrorists - it's the jihadists whose stated goal is to wipe the face of the earth of infidels and reestablish the Caliphate.
They hate ALL who are not muslim, and have been, are plotting against, the free countries of the world - NOT JUST US. It is not a war that "W" has caused - nor a war against "W" - it is a war against our civilization from the uncivilized barbarian hoards - once again.
Seems we have to do this dance every few hundred years and beat them back into the sand.
We need to get the message out to FOX, Rush, et al - to start emphasizing that this is a GLOBAL war - and start reminding people of all the attacks in other countries – Spain, England, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, etc., that can hardly be laid at "W"'s doorstep. We have to wake up the sheeple that the jihadists mean to come for our throats - literally. this is not a political war and we must stop the politicalization of it - the using of it for personal/party political gain.
We allow it to continue at our peril.
"We stand together or we fall apart" m.t. (I may make this into a bumper sticker
Actually, we need a rallying call. WE need to get people into a "US together" mode of thinking. This will undercut the politicians and media that are spinning the war for their personal/party agendas - to the dangerous and detrimental downfall of us all.
So my coined mantra is: "US together: WE stand together or we fall apart" m.t
Feel free to use it. People need a catch phrase...
It's remarkably like the appeal violent gang culture has for disaffected youth. Same thing, but with beheading allowed.
That guy who drove into the Pit at UNC appeared moderate, too. Sometimes appearances are just cultivated to hide what is really there. I don't think Islam DOES work in Western Civ.
Hope the Euros get so fed up that they start cutting the tongues out these jihadists' mouths. Followed by their hearts if need be.
Mad in Europe? Go home to whatever cesspool you came from then let's see you bitch.
UNETHICAL JOURNALISM
They identified these people by religion?
That's racist, sexist, homophobia that should be punished by law....
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